How It Feels to Sell Controlling Interest in Your Internet Marketing Company

I sold controlling interest in my company for an upfront fee and half of the revenue for the forseeable future (re-negotiated after a year, in case I want to stop making them exclusive private-label content). I have two new partners who will take over day-to-day operations within six weeks. I’ll get to focus on what I love, making products. In a year I’ll be completely phased out of the picture, with a 15 – 25% monthly kickback that my new partners insisted on.

Profits will at least double with more hands on deck, as it has in past years when I had an extra hand or two.

I think I’m in shock. I know I’m in shock. It’s not even that I haven’t had this much money at one time before, I have. It’s knowing I’ll be able to breathe soon, and stop working like I was.

See, normally, before I got into services too deep, I would be working four hours a day, or two four hour shifts if I was feeling ambitious, except for the busy season, when I could easily put in four ten hour shifts of marketing.

When I got into services, it got to be 60, sometimes 70 hour weeks. I couldn’t keep up that pace for long when I was in peak condition, not with the intensity this took.

Part of me is a little sad, too. It’s hard letting go of your baby like that. Because of the nature of what I did, it wasn’t just a business. I got really involved with the people I was working with. They’d send me pictures of their kids and we’d make plans to visit each other or meet for lunch.

Most of me isn’t out of shock yet. Not quite ready to rejoice. Stage one of my dream is reality. It’s one month to stage two. Then stage three happens on April 14th, where I’ll tell everyone who I am.

Here’s a hint. Sometimes I forget to switch browsers and my other online identity shows up in the MyBlogLog or BUMPzee widget.